Use of Semiautomatic Gun by New York Police May Pose Risks

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.

About the Archive

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems. Please send reports of such problems to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

The Glock 9-millimeter gun, the only semiautomatic weapon being tested by the New York Police Department, has been criticized recently by some police officials across the country as being one of the least safe high-tech pistols on the market.

New York police officials oppose the use of any semiautomatic pistols, which can hold more cartridges and be reloaded more quickly than revolvers, the department's standard weapon. But the department is conducting a pilot study of the Glock at the insistence of police union officials, who argue that the standard police revolver is no match for the high-powered weapons now commonly carried by criminals.

A bill that would allow officers to carry semiautomatics has overwhelmingly passed the Republican-controlled State Senate and has been sent to the Assembly. But in recent days, the Assembly Speaker, Saul Weprin, has sought to engineer a compromise that would expand the testing program so that more officers would have access to the semiautomatics. Lobbying by Unions

The Legislature took up the issue after lobbying by police unions. New York is one of the few major cities to ban police use of semiautomatics. Mayor David N. Dinkins and Police Commissioner Lee P. Brown have denounced the weapons as unnecessary and unsafe in a crowded city.

The Glock 19, which can hold as many as 18 rounds, was selected in 1989 over a number of other semiautomatic brands to be tested by the New York Police Department. It is being carried by about 600 of the department's 26,000 officers.

But police officials in other cities said dramatic improvements in semiautomatic pistols manufactured by other companies have made the Glock a poor choice for everyday police work. "The science and the art of semiautomatics has come a long way in the last five years," said James Pledger, chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Firearms Training Unit in Quantico, Va.

The Glock was the only semiautomatic to fail in a recent round of "drop tests," Mr. Pledger said. In those tests, guns were dropped to the floor from waist height to see if the impact caused them to fire.

"In many cases, the Glock pistols will not pass the drop test," he said. "If you drop it exactly right, it can go off."

The F.B.I., police departments in Los Angeles and Chicago, the California Highway Patrol and the Metro-Dade Police Department in Florida have banned Glocks for routine use by their officers, citing a range of safety and training problems. All these departments have selected other brands of semiautomatics instead. The Philadelphia Police Department has been testing Glocks for several years and has not reached a conclusion about their safety.

New York's own pilot program has produced the types of accidental shootings that have prompted other departments to ban Glocks.

In an incident in May 1991, an officer from the Firearms and Tactics Section was playing a shuffleboard game in a bar when he bent down to pick up the puck and his Glock fell out of its holster, according to a Police Department report. The gun glanced against the side of the game and discharged as the officer tried to grab it. The bullet struck another officer in the thigh. Accidental Firing

In October 1990, in an incident unrelated to the pilot program, an officer pulled the trigger on his Glock while cleaning it in his bedroom and accidentally fired a bullet. He was not authorized to carry a Glock and had not been trained in its use.

The Glock was chosen for the New York test because it was the best semiautomatic available at the time, said Deputy Inspector John C. Cerar, commanding officer of the Firearms and Tactics Section. He said he opposes the use of semiautomatics, but would recommend the Glock for general police use if the department is forced to allow semiautomatics.

Inspector Cerar said the department was relatively happy with the performance of the Glock, which is used by some New York City Transit Authority Police officers. He said the gun seemed to perform as well as other brands of semiautomatics. All semiautomatics have problems, he said, but with proper training, officers should have no more trouble with Glocks than with other brands.

"Every one of them, I believe, have features that will lead to more accidental discharges than revolvers," Inspector Cerar said. He acknowledged that other manufacturers have significantly improved their semiautomatics since the Glock was selected, but added, "Glock had a great idea before everybody else did."

One of the Glock's most troubling features, in the view of some, is the necessity of pulling the trigger in order to dismantle the weapon for cleaning. No other major brand of semiautomatic requires a trigger pull for cleaning. That feature can lead to unintentional firing, as it apparently did in the 1990 incident in New York. Costly Training

"That's a negative as far as we're concerned, a significant negative," said Mr. Pledger of the F.B.I. Such problems can be overcome with training, but extra training can be too costly for many public agencies, he said, adding that the Glock requires more instruction than other semiautomatics because of its different weight, feel and safety mechanisms.

The F.B.I. has been reviewing the Glock to determine whether it should be authorized for off-duty use. No decision has been yet.

"I'm reluctant to spend the agency's money just to add another gun to the inventory," Mr. Pledger said. "We have plenty of good semiautomatics."

The F.B.I. decided against authorizing Glocks about five years ago, after preliminary tests showed that the gun's light trigger pull and short trigger travel made it "too easy for someone to have an accidental discharge," Mr. Pledger said. Agents are allowed to carry two other brands of semiautomatics -- the SIG-Sauer and the Smith & Wesson.

Glock, an Austrian company, began producing guns in the early 1980's, when the company's founder, Gaston Glock, designed his first pistol, the semiautomatic, and won a contract to produce it for the Austrian military. Streamlined Design

The pistol, made partly of a tough plastic material, was light and easy to fire. Its streamlined design and lack of external safety catches enable a user to cock and fire it with a simple pull of the trigger, much like the action of the police revolver.

The company began aggressively marketing the pistol in the United States in 1985 and quickly won the approval of a number of police departments. In addition to the New York City Transit Police Department -- where officials say they are happy with the weapon -- police departments in Miami and Washington, and dozens of other law-enforcement agencies have authorized the Glock.

Karl Walter, an executive at Glock, said numerous modifications have been made in the gun in recent years, including increasing the trigger tension to provide a heavier trigger pull, a change made to satisfy New York agencies.

Perhaps the Glock's most vocal critic is Richard W. Chenow, a firearms examiner for the Chicago Police Department who has been evaluating the Glock for three years.

The gun's short trigger travel "is what makes the gun dangerous," he said. The standard revolver and the newest generation of semiautomatics can be fired only by exerting a constant heavy pressure on the trigger for the entire distance that the trigger moves, Mr. Chenow said.

The Glock trigger, however, has a substantial amount of slack before it reaches a point of resistance. From that point to the point where when the gun fires is about an eighth of an inch, making it nearly impossible to pull back from firing, Mr. Chenow said.

Police union officials in New York, who have brought the issue of semiautomatics to a head in recent weeks, said they do not care which brand of semiautomatic is authorized, as long as at least one is allowed.

"We're not actually pushing a product," said Phil Caruso, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. "We're pushing the concept of a high-tech gun." Any brand is acceptable, he said, "as long as it provides us with the fire power we need."

A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: Use of Semiautomatic Gun by New York Police May Pose Risks. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe